On Thursday, July 18, a convicted American war criminal, Robert Seldon Lady, was detained in Panama near the Costa Rican border. The next day, Lady was headed back to the United States, according to news reports. Lady, age 59, was convicted by an Italian court in 2005 for kidnapping and his role in the 2003 “extraordinary rendition” of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr to Egypt. Nasr was tortured every day for seven months. Neither the CIA nor the State Department has offered any statements about the case at this time.
According to court documents, Lady watched from a cafe across the street while Nasr was sprayed with an aerosol drug, beaten, loaded into a van and driven to the Aviano airbase outside Milan, where Lady then-served as CIA station chief. Lady was given the most severe sentence, nine years, out of the 22 American CIA and Air Force personnel found guilty by the Italian court. Three Italian military and intelligence officers were also found guilty of kidnapping during the probe of Italy's role in the illegal American program.